Tag Archives: Yogyakarta

Prambanan is the largest Hindus temple in Southeast Asia. Its location which is not far from the temple of Borobudur as if to show about the harmony between the Buddhists and Hindus in Java, not just in the past but also today. Administratively, this temple is located on the border of Central Java and Yogyakarta, 17 kilometers from the center of Yogyakarta, in the middle area that is now built a beautiful park.

The Three Largest temple is dedicated to Shiva in the center, on the left Brahma, Vishnu and on the right. On the front of the temples are temples EACH of vahanas (vehicle of Gods). There is prevara Originally Hundreds of temples.Author : Gunawan KartapranataLicensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

The temple that by the local community is known by the name Roro Jonggrang, has a legend. Long ago there was a powerful and magical young man who wanted to marry a beautiful princess named Roro Jonggrang. The king who also the father of the Princess had forced her to marry “Bandung Bondowoso”. He is the prince of the neighboring kingdom. Roro Jonggrang did not love him but could not reject it anyway. After a long consideration, she finally gave one condition to Bandung Bondowoso to build 1000 temples and promised to marry him if her requirements could be resolved before dawn.

Roro Jonggrang requested that the work had to be completed before the rooster crowed that she thought it was impossible. But the magical Bandung Bondowoso nearly could complete the 999 temples with the help of Jinnand his strength.

Roro Jonggrang asked the women in the village to start hitting the rice, to make the chickens woke up and began to crow. Bondowoso was very disappointed with her behavior, then changed her into a stone which is now known as Prambanan Temple, while the nearby temple called Sewu Temple or a thousand temples.

Prambanan temple was built in the 9th century, dedicated to the God Shiva (the destroyer), and two at each side dedicated to the God Brahma (the creator) and God Vishnu (the keepers). The highest temple is 47 meters 5 meters higher than Borobudur temple and also among other temples in the vicinity. The foundation of this temple has fulfilled the desire to show Hindu triumph in the island of Java.

Prambanan also has temple reliefs, which contains the story of Ramayana. According to experts, the relief is similar to the Ramayana story revealed through oral tradition. Another interesting relief is Kalpataru tree that the Hindu religion is considered as a tree of life, sustainability and environmental compatibility. At Prambanan, reliefs of Kalpataru trees depicted flanking the lion. The existence of this tree makes experts consider that the ninth century had wisdom to manage their environment.

Temple Relief Prambanan,lion in niche flanked by two kalpataru trees each flanked by a pair of kinnaras or animals. GNU Free Documentation LicenseWikipedia

Ravana Sita Kidnapping riding winged giant, while the Jatayu on the left tried to help her. 9th century Prambanan bas-reliefs at the temple dedicated to Shiva at the temple of Prambanan or temple Lara Jonggrang, Java, Indonesia.Author : H. Bongers (Fotograaf / photographer).Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Prambanan was rediscovered by a Dutch citizen named CA Lons in 1733 after hundred years neglected. This temple has been renovated and is now known as the most beautiful Hindus temple in Indonesia.

Coolies with sedan chairs in front of ruins of Hindu temple of Prambanan.Author : William Henry JacksonPublic domain – Wikipedia

The beauty and complexity of the architecture Prambanan as a very beautiful building has been named as a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1991.

Ramayana – Performing Arts at Prambanan Temple

Ramayana ballet is a dance drama, which tells the story of Ramayana, especially about Rama who is a legendary Hindus king and also can be said as the incarnation of God. This drama tells the story of Rama’s bravery.This famous drama, held at Prambanan Temple courtyard area in the form of dance. Ramayana ballet drama at Prambanan are usually held on the period of full moon to be enjoyed by visitors on various dates in that period of approximately six months. The dancers demonstrate their dancing skills to the audience in the beautiful traditional outfit.

Ramayana Dance drama at Prambanan temple is different from the original story in India, it reflects the result of adaptation with Java culture for years and it is one of the best dance performance in Indonesian.

In this show not only the music and dance are carefully prepared, lighting has also been prepared in detail. This provides more value, because the light is not a torch light only, but much light from the lamp are designed to describe the events and moods of the characters.

Javanese dance featuring the Ramayana Ballet. In this scene Shinta (Rama’s wife, second from left) is held as prisoner in Alengka palace garden by King Ravana, she is surrounded by princess, ladies in waiting and Servants.Author : Gunawan KartapranataLicensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Prambanan Ramayana Ballet won the international award “PATA Gold Award 2012” beat 180 contestants from 79 countries in category “Heritage and Culture”, which is obtained at the annual conference of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) in 2012 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 21 April 2012.

The Borobudur Temple is one of the famous tourist attractions in Indonesia which is located at Borobudur, Magelang, Central Java. Borobudur Temple was founded around the year 824 BC or 9th century by Buddhist Mahayana.

This Buddhist temple has 1460 reliefs and 504 Buddha effigies in its complex. Millions of people want to visit this buildings which included in the World Wonder Heritages. Besides being a tourist attraction, is also a center of worship for Buddhists in Indonesia, especially in every celebration of Waisak/Vesak . This is according with its name meaning “monastery in the hills”.

The founder of the Borobudur Temple was the King Samaratungga, which comes from the dynasty Syailendra. The possibility this temple was completed around 900 AD during the reign of Queen Pramudawardhani who was the daughter of Samaratungga. While the architects who contributed to build this temple according to the story hereditary named Gunadharma.

This temple for centuries was no longer used. Then because of volcanic eruptions, most of the Borobudur Temple building, covered with volcanic soil, trees and shrubs for centuries. Then the building of this temple began forgotten in the days of Islam arrived in Indonesia around the 15th century.

In 1814 when the British occupied Indonesia, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, Governor General of the United Kingdom in Java, during the colonial era heard about the discovery of huge archaeological objects in the village of Magelang Bumisegoro and because he was very interested to the history of Java, Raffles immediately ordered the HC Cornelius, a Dutch engineer, to investigate the location of the discovery which was a hill covered with shrubs.

Cornelius assisted by about 200 men cut down trees and remove shrubs that cover the giant building. Because the building is already fragile and could collapse, then Cornelius Raffles reported to the invention includes a few pictures. Because of that discovery, Raffles was honored as the person who started the restoration of Borobudur temple and got the attention of the world. In 1835, the entire area of the temple has been unearthed. The temple was continued restored in the Dutch colonial period.

After Indonesia’s independence, in 1956, the Indonesian government requested the assistance of UNESCO to examine the damage of Borobudur. In 1963, was decided officially, that the government of Indonesia will conduct the restoration of Borobudur temple with the help from UNESCO. However, this restoration completely began on August 10, 1973. The new restoration process was completed in 1984. Since 1991, the temple of Borobudur set as World Heritage Site, or the World Heritage by UNESCO. Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles gave the name of this temple with the name “Borobudur” , based on the true story with all evidence that are written and documented by him

Restoration of the memorial stone of the temple of Borobudur (with the help from Unesco)Author : Masgatotkaca, transfered to Commons by Kenrick95.GNU Free Documentation License

The first photograph Borobudur temple (1873) after the monument was cleaned from the plant, that grown in the temple. Dutch flag looked on the main stupa of the temple.Author : en: Isidore van KinsbergenPublic domain

The highest terrace after restoration. The main stupa has a tower with chattra (umbrella) stacking three.Source : Tropenmuseum for Wikipedialicensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Other than that, there are some other etymology folks said that the word of Borobudur came from the words: “The Buddhist”. Another explanation is : the name was derived from two words “coal” and “beduhur”. The word coal supposedly derived from “temple”, and the meaning of beduhur is “high”, or reminding the Balinese language meant “above”. So Borobudur meant monastery on a higher ground.

Borobudur temple which located in Magelang, Central Java, has 10 levels which consists of six levels of a square, 3 levels of a circular and a main Stupa as the peak. At each level there are several stupas. Altogether there are 72 stupas in addition to the main stupa. In every stupa there is a statue of Buddha inside it. Ten level of Borobudur temple describes the ten levels of Bodhisattva (Buddha philosophy) which must pass to reach the perfection to become Buddha in nirvana (heaven). This perfection is symbolized by the main stupa at the top level.

On the fourth side of the temple, there is a gate and stairs to the level above, it like a pyramid. This illustrates the Buddhist philosophy that all life came from rocks. The next step then, the stone become sand, plants, insects, wild animals, pets, and reborn as a human. This process is known as reincarnation. The last process is become soul and eventually get into nirvana and all about those things illustrated in the reliefs and sculptures in the entire temple walls of Borobudur. Borobudur has 2670 different relief that are read clockwise. The relief illustrate a story and to read it begins and ends at the gate on the east temple as a main Gate.

Siddharta Gautama relief on the walls of the templeAuthor : Gunkarta for WikipediaGNU Free Documentation License

This huge building is the form of giant pile of stone blocks which have a total height of 42 meters. Each stone spliced without using cement or adhesive. These stones are only connected based on a pattern, and stacked. The stones which used approximately 55 000 cubic meters. All the stone was taken from the river around Borobudur. These stones are cut and spliced and transported to a pattern like lego games.

Borobudur temple is one the evidence the greatness and human intelligence ever in Indonesia. Borobudur temple becomes the object of cultural tourism, other than Bali and some other places in Indonesia.